Chapter Summaries

Bo Shuo tried to escape both the approaching leader and Wen Yanqing by creating chaos in the Sorting Area. His attack cracked the Glass Cover, releasing the scent of Blood and Flesh and leaving everyone—including the leader—overcome with hunger.

• Bo Shuo decided to provoke a chaotic scene in the Sorting Area so the leader and Wen Yanqing would stop focusing on him.
• As the leader attacked, Bo Shuo used Puppet Silk to send controlled people against it, but Wen Yanqing shielded the crowd and shattered the silk.
• Bo Shuo, overwhelmed by his rising Corruption Value, threw a scalpel at Wen Yanqing and the examinees behind him.
• The scalpel flew past Wen Yanqing’s Long Sword and struck the Glass Cover, cracking it and scattering the workers inside.
• The scent of Blood and Flesh spread through the Sorting Area, driving the people and the leader into a frenzy of hunger.

After the Sorting Area descended into chaos, Bo Shuo let Wen Yanqing rescue the candidates while he left with Meng Ran Nian and the others. Though he recognized that rising Corruption Value was changing his personality, he decided to find Zhang Xiong and ask him directly about the situation.

• The leader joined the fight over the zongzi, and Wen Yanqing rescued candidates while using his skill to lower the Corruption Value.
• Bo Shuo left the Sorting Area with several people as the survivors outside recoiled from him in fear.
• Bo Shuo reflected that the rising Corruption Value had reduced his fear and rationality and might be changing who he was.
• Bo Shuo told 007 he planned to find Zhang Xiong and ask him about the situation.

Bo Shuo and the others found Zhang Xiong attempting suicide in Room 409 and saved him, then discovered bags of human flesh hidden in his dormitory. Bo Shuo suspected Zhang Xiong had been eating the flesh, though the spoiled meat’s purpose remained unclear.

• Bo Shuo kicked open Room 409 and found Zhang Xiong hanging from the ceiling.
• Meng Ran Nian confirmed Zhang Xiong was alive and gave him a Recovery Potion while Bo Shuo searched the room.
• Bo Shuo found bags of human flesh in a drawer, including meat that had been stored for at least three months.
• Zhang Xiong woke up bound and refused to explain the meat when Meng Ran Nian questioned him.
• Bo Shuo wondered whether Zhang Xiong had eaten the human flesh and speculated that the stored meat had some special purpose.

Bo Shuo revealed that Zhang Xiong’s sister had sacrificed her own flesh to lower his Corruption Value and save him from losing control. Zhang Xiong broke down in remorse as the others watched in silence.

• Bo Shuo told Zhang Xiong that pieces of his sister were in the drawer, shocking Ni Zi and Yu Zhou.
• Zhang Xiong finally confessed that eating people lowered Corruption Value and said he had not known his sister died for him.
• Zhang Xiong picked up the stinking Blood and Flesh and held it to his chest while laughing and crying.
• Bo Shuo explained that Zhang Xiong had been unaware while losing control and that his sister had cut off her own flesh to save him.

Bo Shuo learned that Zhang Xiong’s human form was only temporary and that corruption had overtaken the factory. Zhang Xiong revealed that the disaster began in the Corpse Dissolving Ground, leaving Bo Shuo to face the factory’s hidden pollution source as midnight approached.

• Meng Ran Nian searched Zhang Xiong and found his Work Badge turning black, confirming that eating human flesh only temporarily hid his corruption.
• Bo Shuo noticed that the moon and stars were out and realized that the Clock Tower’s time, not the other clocks, showed it was nearly midnight.
• Bo Shuo pressed Zhang Xiong to explain the factory’s final area, and Zhang Xiong identified it as the Corpse Dissolving Ground.
• Zhang Xiong said he had entered the factory to find his missing sister, who had been tricked into working there.
• Zhang Xiong explained that employees in the Corpse Dissolving Ground mutated first, then corruption spread through the factory and transformed everyone there.

Bo Shuo learned that the Sorting Center had shut down and that the Corpse Dissolving Ground was the only remaining place to work. He reached its guarded entrance but had no clear way to disguise himself and enter safely.

• Bo Shuo recognized that the Clock Tower showed the correct time, checked his Work ID, and decided not to reduce his Corruption Value further for the Cleaner job.
• Meng Ran Nian knocked Zhang Xiong unconscious and followed Bo Shuo as he prepared to leave.
• 007 warned Bo Shuo that the Sorting Center had shut down and directed him to the Corpse Dissolving Ground.
• Bo Shuo saw examinees heading toward the Chemical Plant and receiving Emotion Point prompts as they resented the loss of easier jobs.
• Bo Shuo followed 007's directions to the Corpse Dissolving Ground, where he studied its narrow entrance and wondered how to get inside without being exposed.

Bo Shuo and the escorts entered the Corpse Dissolving Ground, where he spotted Wen Yanqing being treated with reverence by the Team Leader. Suspecting the Exam Venue worshipped the Shadowless Church, Bo Shuo put on a Priest Outfit and disappeared from the group to pursue his plans.

• The Team Leader questioned the extra escorts, then led them deeper into the polluted Corpse Dissolving Ground.
• Bo Shuo recognized the Shadowless Church symbol and wondered whether Wen Yanqing had ties to it.
• Bo Shuo spotted Wen Yanqing ahead, and the Team Leader addressed him as Lord The Hanged Man with fear and reverence.
• Bo Shuo suspected the Exam Venue worshipped the Shadowless Church and exchanged Emotion Points for a Priest Outfit.
• Meng Ran Nian and Ni Zi noticed Bo Shuo had vanished from the crowd.

Wen Yanqing and Bo Shuo, both posing as Priests of the Shadowless Cult, confronted each other at the factory and exposed their competing claims to be The Hanged Man. Wen Yanqing sent the confused Team Leader away and proposed changing the Betting Game, just as another group arrived.

• Wen Yanqing recognized Bo Shuo and exchanged veiled threats with him.
• Wen Yanqing told the Team Leader that the church had sent several Priests, but Bo Shuo claimed his title was The Hanged Man and denied knowing about any other Priests being sent.
• The Team Leader became confused, then accepted Wen Yanqing's suggestion to leave and descended from the side.
• Bo Shuo watched the stiff, creaking Transporters as Wen Yanqing proposed changing the rules of the Betting Game.
• Another group of people arrived while Wen Yanqing and Bo Shuo confronted each other.

Bo Shuo and the others were drawn into the Proctoring System’s “One Two Three Wooden Person” branch assessment, where even the slightest movement caused examinees to die. The chapter ended with Bo Shuo holding still as a sweet female voice began speaking over the clearing.

• Liu Yu and Liu Yao spotted Bo Shuo and hesitated, frightened by their previous encounter with him.
• Wen Yanqing called the group out from hiding, and the Proctoring System opened a branch assessment for the special scenario examinees.
• The scenery shifted to a clearing filled with scarecrows, and Bo Shuo realized that moving could be fatal.
• Several examinees moved and melted into pools of blood while Bo Shuo and the veterans stayed still.
• 007 warned Bo Shuo that Wen Yanqing might be using the assessment to kill him, as a sweet female voice rang out.

Bo Shuo became captain of the Red Faction Squad and began searching for Human Bone while questioning how Wen Yanqing could have taken the examination before. He found a bone matching the White Jade from his earlier task and confronted Wen Yanqing, who seemed unconcerned with the game.

• Bo Shuo received a Red String and was named captain of the Red Faction Squad as the scarecrows watched the candidates.
• Bo Shuo asked 007 whether candidates could repeat examinations, and 007 found no evidence that they could.
• Bo Shuo chose to search beneath the nearby scarecrows instead of entering the darkness and found a tiny, jade-white bone.
• Bo Shuo compared the bone with the White Jade from the "Cleaning" task and realized they were identical parts of the same object.
• Wen Yanqing approached Bo Shuo and asked whether he recognized the bones, and Bo Shuo told him not to call him Mr. Bo.

The examinees endured a deadly scarecrow game in which moving while the scarecrows watched caused victims to explode into Blood Mist. As the teams raced to collect bones, Bo Shuo grew wary of Wen Yanqing, who stood aside instead of searching.

• Bees escaped from shattered glass covers and swarmed the examinees, while a slight movement drew a scarecrow's gaze and caused one person to explode into Blood Mist.
• The scarecrows turned their heads away, giving the examinees time to search for bones before they turned back.
• Bo Shuo noted that the scarecrows' turn-away cycle had lasted five minutes, and Meng Ran Nian's group found several bones.
• Bo Shuo noticed Wen Yanqing was not searching despite starting the game, and suspected he was planning a trick.
• Wen Yanqing noticed Bo Shuo watching him and smiled politely, while Bo Shuo kept his attention divided between the search and Wen Yanqing.

Bo Shuo searched a dark classroom for bones and discovered jars containing bones and birthday wishes signed “b.” He returned to the others with the bones, and Meng Ran Nian asked what he had found.

• Bo Shuo used 007 to search the dark space while keeping watch on the scarecrow and the clock.
• Bo Shuo recognized the space as a classroom and found two jars, one filled with folded five-pointed stars and the other with bones.
• Bo Shuo read birthday wishes inside the stars, including a signature marked “b,” and had 007 record the jars.
• Bo Shuo found around ten bones, then turned back after about four minutes and safely returned.
• Meng Ran Nian approached Bo Shuo holding a leg bone and asked what he had found.

Bo Shuo and the other examinees survived a ceiling full of falling cleavers, only for Little Trumpet to raise the difficulty and start a new game. Strawmen crawled from the cracking ground as Little Trumpet began singing, leaving Bo Shuo unsure whether being seen moving by them would also kill the players.

• Bo Shuo used Puppet Silk to deflect the cleavers that fell through the ceiling after the strawman turned its head.
• Little Trumpet announced a new game and caused the ground to shake and split open.
• Little Trumpet revealed itself and commanded the examinees to begin playing.
• Strawmen of many sizes crawled from the cracks as Little Trumpet sang a wooden dummy game song.
• Bo Shuo wondered whether the new strawmen would kill anyone they saw moving.

Bo Shuo discovered that the hidden rooms in West Zhou could only be entered when he was alone, and found an abandoned dormitory at Ren Ai Orphanage. The place stirred an impossible sense of familiarity in him, and he found a disturbing drawing tucked inside a picture book.

• Bo Shuo refused Meng Ran Nian's offer of leg bones and returned with him to the place where Bo Shuo had previously entered hidden rooms.
• Bo Shuo found only a wall while Meng Ran Nian was with him, then asked Meng Ran Nian to leave and discovered he could enter once he was alone.
• Bo Shuo entered a different room and found a plaque identifying it as Ren Ai Orphanage.
• Bo Shuo recognized the dormitory's layout with an inexplicable sense of familiarity and switched on a ceiling lamp.
• Bo Shuo found a picture book containing a drawing of a wounded white crane surrounded by black hands rising from a marsh.

Bo Shuo and 007 searched a room for bones while discussing why learning Yi Rong's name had not affected him. After Bo Shuo returned to the Red Team, he confirmed that the Scarecrows turned around at the five-minute mark, just as the White Mist began to disperse and expose them to danger.

• Bo Shuo told 007 that learning Yi Rong's name had caused him no discomfort, and they searched the room for more bones.
• Bo Shuo and 007 found several scattered bones and left the room before their five-minute search period ended.
• Meng Ran Nian organized the seven surviving Red Team members into search and defense groups and handed out whistles.
• Bo Shuo emerged from the mist with heavy skeletons and told the group that the Scarecrow turned around after five minutes.
• Bo Shuo waited until five minutes passed and confirmed that the Scarecrow turned its head as the White Mist rapidly dispersed.

As corrosive liquid wore down their protective gear, Bo Shuo realized the Pink Horn had misled them about the game’s rules. He suspected the real danger was being discovered by the Pink Horn, not the scarecrows, and left the group without a way to test his theory.

• Bo Shuo and the others searched for cover from the scarecrows, but found nothing in the open space.
• A man cried out and moved while the scarecrows watched him; after surviving their gaze briefly, he panicked and exploded into blood mist.
• Bo Shuo noticed the man had not died as soon as the scarecrows saw him, contradicting the Pink Horn’s warning.
• Bo Shuo directed 007 to observe the Pink Horn and reasoned that it had deliberately misled them about who must not discover them.
• Bo Shuo considered that the Pink Horn was not merely a proctor but a core part of the game.

Bo Shuo realized the scarecrows concealed a fast-moving loudspeaker whose gaze killed anyone it passed, and he worked out that its singing could help track it. He asked 007 to warn him when it came within three meters, but the venue descended further into chaos as the loudspeaker’s detection window began to close.

• Bo Shuo saw that an examinee died when the loudspeaker passed, not when the scarecrows stared at him.
• Bo Shuo concluded that the loudspeaker was the real threat and that its singing offered a way to anticipate its movements.
• Bo Shuo asked 007 to warn him when the loudspeaker came within three meters, and 007 said they had five minutes before it could no longer predict the loudspeaker’s path.
• Bo Shuo stepped forward while sulfuric acid fell, examinees died, and survivors increasingly transformed into monsters.

Bo Shuo defied the scarecrows’ apparent rules and survived, prompting Liu Yao to realize the Pink Horn had misled the examinees about the true rules. He addressed the crowd and explained that the horn was lying to make them kill one another.

• Bo Shuo moved despite the scarecrows watching him, but he was not erased.
• Liu Yao noticed Bo Shuo had survived and began to suspect the Pink Horn had lied about the rules.
• Liu Yao tugged Liu Yu’s sleeve and directed him to look at the sky, and he saw Bo Shuo standing calmly nearby.
• Bo Shuo addressed the examinees and said the trial was not a simple game or Faction War, but that the horn had lured them into killing one another.

Bo Shuo proposed that the two teams cooperate by matching their bone counts, then used silver threads to force the crowd into obedience when someone questioned him. With the First Stage arrangements complete, he prepared to carry out his next plan.

• Bo Shuo explained that both teams could survive if they ended the round with the same number of bones.
• The crowd hesitated because they feared the opposing team might secretly keep a bone and cause them to lose.
• Bo Shuo concluded that the loudspeaker could see only two meters and might have poor hearing.
• When someone asked what would happen if they refused to cooperate, Bo Shuo threatened them and spread silver threads to their necks.
• Bo Shuo judged the First Stage arrangements complete and prepared to proceed with his plan.

Bo Shuo organized the players into teams to search for bones while ordering 007 to watch for disobedience. The search produced only 204 bones, leaving the group fearing that someone had hidden the missing bones as the speakers moved faster.

• Bo Shuo split everyone into four teams and directed their movements to avoid the speakers while searching for bones.
• Meng Ran Nian and the others led the teams, and Yu Zhou helped search the area for bones.
• 007 reported people who hid bones or shirked work, and Bo Shuo killed them with Puppet Silk for disobeying his orders.
• As the speakers accelerated, the players hurried to collect the bones and 007 counted them.
• The teams finished searching but found only 204 bones, prompting everyone to consider whether the skeleton was incomplete, nonhuman, or missing bones hidden by someone.